Ten-seater Quest Kodiac lands at girgaum chowpatty: Fog delays seaplane flight

The plane took off from Mumbai airport at 2.40 pm. It reached Chowpatty in less than 10 minutes. Nirmal Harindran

The scheduled demo flight of a seaplane got delayed due to thick fog on Saturday, but Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari and Union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju, along with senior aviation officials, decided to wait for almost two hours to watch it land at Girgaum Chowpatty.

The flight failed to get take-off clearance at the scheduled time from the Air Traffic Control (ATC) of Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA). Low visibility, followed by air traffic congestion, led to the delay. The flight was part of the second phase of trials by SpiceJet, which proposes to introduce seaplane services in the country and expects to make at least 10 planes operational within the next 12 months. SpiceJet had in September signed a memorandum of understanding with Japanese firm Setouchi Holdings, manufacturer of the amphibious Kodiak planes, to procure them.
Following the trial, Gadkari assured that the ministry of civil aviation and the ministry of shipping will formulate the required regulations for seaplanes in the country within three months.

After a press conference at around 12.45 pm, Gadkari, Raju and senior SpiceJet officials were taken by boat to the floater where the seaplane was supposed to be parked after landing. The delay in the seaplane’s arrival kept them waiting inside the boats. “We were informed that the plane did not get take-off clearance from the ATC. When the ministers were informed, they insisted on waiting till the plane comes. As soon as the plane landed, the ministers were briefed about the design of the plane. Gadkari also sat inside the plane when it was stationed near the floater,” a SpiceJet official said.
Amphibian planes can land and take off from land and water and require a short runway for movement.

SpiceJet had scheduled the demo flight of its 10-seater Kodiak model from Mumbai airport to Girgaum Chowpatty to depart from the airport by 1.15 pm and reach Chowpatty within 15 minutes. However, the plane could leave only at 2.40 pm. It reached Chowpatty in less than 10 minutes. After landing at Chowpatty, it took off again and circled in the air one more time.

“Due to visibility issues, the ATC could not give clearance. While a visibility of 1,500 metres is required, the airport reported a visibility of 1,300 metres. This forced the plane to step out of the line of the aircraft scheduled for take-off. This delayed its departure,” Ajay Singh, Chairman & Managing Director, SpiceJet, said.

“Visibility was low for an aircraft like this. We could not give it the required clearance for at least 25 to 30 minutes. Later, they had to line up again behind other aircraft to fly out of the airport from the main runway,” Rajiv Saxena. General Manager, Air Traffic Control, Mumbai airport, said.

“The demo was to allow policymakers to check the flight. We are hopeful of launching it soon. Also, landing a seaplane in Mumbai brings with itself an equal sense of excitement. It is also a good way of understanding where work needs to be done and find any gaps in actually flying a plane. Even for the demo flight, dozens of clearances had to be taken. We understood the regulations that need to be framed here. We will now study what visibility parameters are present in other countries and what we must adopt,” Singh added.

Officials said the first phase of trials was conducted at Nagpur and Guwahati. “Within the next three months, the ministry of civil aviation and the ministry of shipping will formulate the required regulations for seaplanes in the country. Taking cues from rules in place in countries including the US, Canada and Japan where the planes are in use, we will formulate the complete policy. The required infrastructure would also be duly developed,” Gadkari said.

“The potential for amphibian plane remains immense as these can land on short runways. With capacity constraint at Mumbai airport, airlines could use such amphibian planes to take off from multiple locations of the city’s coast and fly to places like Shirdi,” Gadkari added.

SpiceJet plans to buy at least 100 seaplanes from Setouchi Holdings. Each plane costs Rs 4 crore.

“We will take due care to see all clearances are met and we are within the ambit of rules. We will begin operations only if it is commercially viable,” Singh added.

Kazuyuki Okada, president and CEO, Setouchi Holdings Inc. said, “Kodiaks are the perfect flying machines that can effectively connect the country’s remote cities and airstrips, which can in turn revolutionise the regional connectivity scheme.”

The Quest Kodiac plane

Primarily a small aircraft, it could range from a nine-seater to a 15-seater airplane. The planes hardly require a runway length of 300 metres for take off and landing, allowing its usage in remote locations. It is equipped with floats that allow it to take off from or land on waterways.

Fitted with Pratt and Whitney PT6A turbine engine, it can land and take off from unimproved surfaces. There are about 200 Kodiak aircraft flying all over the world for the past 10 years.